Published October 2025
A TQH Study
India’s digital revolution has opened doors to unprecedented opportunities for women and children – enabling learning, expression, entrepreneurship, and civic participation. But it has also brought with it new and complex online risks that mirror and amplify the country’s offline inequalities.
This report examines the evolving landscape of online harms faced by women and children in India, exploring how anonymity, permanence of content, and cross-platform abuse heighten the impact of technology-facilitated gender-based violence and child exploitation. While India now has over 965 million internet users, its mechanisms for online safety remain fragmented and reactive, often mobilising only after high-profile incidents.
Drawing from multi-stakeholder consultations – including civil society organisations working with survivors, listening sessions with young users, and extensive secondary research – the report maps the risks, gaps, and systemic drivers shaping online harm in India. It finds that official data captures only a fraction of the problem: weak taxonomies, poor data disaggregation, and inconsistent reporting frameworks make it difficult for policymakers and enforcement agencies to understand or address the full scope of harm.
The study also identifies key structural issues in India’s legal and institutional frameworks. Current laws fail to clearly distinguish between cyber-enabled and cyber-dependent offences, complicating enforcement. Meanwhile, platforms face significant informal pressures without being sufficiently incentivised to adopt safety-by-design measures, and civil society groups – despite their reach – remain under-supported.
Building on global lessons, the report offers a systemic roadmap for India’s online safety ecosystem. Its recommendations call for:
- Modernised definitions of cybercrime and “legal but harmful” online risks
- Robust data collection and risk-assessment requirements
- Strengthening platform accountability through systemic risk assessment and disclosure requirements
- Gender-sensitive and child-specific legal reforms
- Standardised law-enforcement protocols and training
- Formal collaboration with civil society in prevention and survivor support
- Industry-led codes of practice on safe and inclusive platform design
Ultimately, the report argues that safeguarding women and children online cannot rest on law enforcement alone. It requires a coordinated, prevention-first approach – combining legal clarity, institutional capacity, platform accountability, and survivor-centred support. By embedding these principles into policy and practice, India can move from reacting to crises toward building a safe, inclusive, and trusted digital environment for all.